Chef-Owner, Love That I Knead Supper Club; Philadelphia, PA

Nana Araba Wilmot is chef and owner of Georgina’s Private Chef and Catering Co. and curator of Love That I Knead Supper Club. Nana started cooking at age 7 with her grandmother, which was the source of her love of cooking for others. After graduating with two degrees in culinary arts and culinary management at The Art Institute of Philadelphia in 2013, Nana went on to work for Wolfgang Puck Catering and Iron Chef Jose Garces’ restaurants. Nana moved to New York as opening crew for Garces’ FiDi location in 2016. She went on to work at Le CouCou, a Steven Starr restaurant collaboration with Chef Daniel Rose in Soho that garnered a James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant in 2017 and 1 Michelin star in 2018, and then worked with Chef Marie Rose at Le Mercerie while picking up bartending at YN Bar in the Nolita neighborhood. In February 2020, Chef Nana accepted a job in Paris to work at La Bourse et La Vie by Daniel Rose but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, moved back to the states to Philadelphia. This is where she started Love That I Knead Supperclub, a West African focused dinner series that celebrates Black history and food ways across the diaspora. Reimagining that lens, Nana explores her identity on a plate while also helping others to “find their way back.” She has been featured in a variety of publications including a spread and video on “Life on the Line” in the March 2018 issue of Bon Appetit, in the New York Times article “How High-End Restaurants Have Failed Black Female Chefs,” and most recently as a guest on Episode 380 of the Cherry Bombe podcast Radio Cherry Bombe. @illnahna